There R Giants #47: Simon Whiteman
Photo Credit: Kirk Nawrotzky | Richmond Flying Squirrels
We’re into the There R Giants Top 50. Over the next few months, I’ll write a post on each of the fifty players in my rankings, leading us back to spring. So far, we’ve covered:
I chose and my world was shaken. So what? The choice may have been mistaken; the choosing was not. You have to move on. — Stephen Sondheim
If you’ll pardon a slight detour today, in addition to my lifetime love of San Francisco sports teams, my father engendered in me another lifelong devotion — to the theater generally, and musical theater specifically. Like my Dad, I’ve spent years keeping a community theater going in my neighborhood with big musicals our feature production every spring. So it was a personal blow to me this weekend when Stephen Sondheim unexpectedly passed away at the ripe old age of 91 — an unparalleled genius who in this particular context, I can only describe as the Willie Mays of Broadway. There was never another like him before and there never will be his like again. Consolation comes in knowing that his was a life that was particularly well-lived, but there’s no doubt that a special light has gone out of the world and I wasn’t quite ready for it to go dark. So, in addition to sharing baseball takes with you today, I’ll invite any of you who are so inclined to take a little respite and fall into the depthless world of Sondheim. It’s a profound experience! Also, I’m adopting his lyrics above as an epigraph for my Top 50 ranking. My choices may be mistaken, but I’m making them and moving on!
Ok, back to our regularly scheduled programming (hopefully Simon won’t mind the delay). Shockingly, several of you did correctly guess the subject of today’s post! Either my tease was a little too specific, or we here in the There R Giants community are developing a scary “hive mind” (one reader actually identified the subject of the next TWO posts — crazy)! Regardless, prospect #47 on our list is, indeed, the speedy utility man from Yale, Simon Whiteman, the man who brings the very best twitter handle among all Giants prospects: @thespeedkillz.
Simon can do this…
…he can do this…
…why, heck! Occasionally, he can even do this!
He’s also a prospect who is almost perfectly formulated for today’s data-driven kind of analytics. Perhaps it’s no wonder that he was the first member of the Giants’ 2019 draft class to reach Double-A, just as he had been the first to reach full season ball back in 2019. Pretty good for a 9th round pick!
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